News and views from the classical music announcers at WTJU, 91.1 FM, Charlottesville, Virginia

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The Strange Case of the Schubert Symphonies

If there's one thing most people know about Franz Schubert, it's that
his most popular symphony is unfinished. If there's a second thing folks
remember about Franz Schubert, it's that he only wrote nine symphonies.
But if you look carefully at the list, you'll notice two oddities.

Unfinished, but included
The official "Unfinished" symphony (No. 8) incompletion wasn't because
of Schubert's death. He wrote the first and second movement in 1822 (six
years before his death), and just never got around to writing the last
two movements. (most symphonies from this era had four movements). The
first two movements were of such quality, though, that they were
performed and have become part of the standard repertoire.

Unfinished and missing
The missing symphony is No. 7 is even more of a fragment than the 8th.
composed in 1821, this E major symphony exists in sketch form, with a
melody line and bass and counterpoint underneath. Unlike the 8th, all
four movements of the 7th were written, and the first part of the first
movement is fully orchestrated (the next step in the composition
process).

The other other unfinished symphony
And there's another symphony missing from the list. In the final weeks
of his life, Schubert composed a 10th symphony in a piano reduction
score. That is, the music is written to be played on the piano, with
notes indicating instruments for later orchestration. Like the 7th, it
appears to be complete in sketch form.

With a significant amount of these compositions complete, it isn't
surprising that musicians have been tempted to fill in the blanks.

Symphony No. 7's three co-composers
Schubert's 7th symphony was first completed in 1881 by John Francis
Barnett, an English composer and teacher. Famed conductor Felix
Weingartner did his own version in 1934, and featured it in performance.
The final version (to date) is by composer and scholar Brian Newbould,
who extensively studied Schubert in order to make his completion as
authentic as possible.

Symphony No. 10's two-and-a-half co-composers
The score for Symphony No. 10 was only identified as such in the 1970's,
and Brian Newbould offered a scholarly completion of it. Conductor
Pierre Bartholomeé revised Newbould's version with controversial
results. And finally, composer Luciano Berio used the source material
as the basis for his work "Rendering."

Questions remain
So how many symphonies did Schubert really write? In terms of completed
works, seven. In terms of what's commonly performed, eight. And in terms
of what might have been, ten.

But are these completions valid? It's difficult to say Schubert
may have revised the surviving material after working with it for a
while. While we can say a combination of instruments for a certain
passage is likely, based on Schubert's other works, it's possible he may
have chosen differently.

Personally, I think the sketches are complete enough that most of the
resulting music is Schubert's. And I'm glad for the opportunity to hear
these works, even in an adulterated form. They deepen my understanding
and appreciation of this short-lived musical genius.